The Irvine, California-based consumer electronics company paid $2.2 million to the Federal Trade Commission and the state of New Jersey last week. The settlement was reached after a complaint filed by the FTC and NJ attorney general alleged that Vizio collected customer data from more than 11 million devices and illegally sold it to third parties.

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"On a second-by-second basis, Vizio collected a selection of pixels on the screen that it matched to a database of TV, movie, and commercial content," the FTC said. "What’s more, Vizio identified viewing data from cable or broadband service providers, set-top boxes, streaming devices, DVD players, and over-the-air broadcasts. Add it all up and Vizio captured as many as 100 billion data points each day from millions of TVs."

In 2014, the private company began producing televisions that automatically tracked what viewers were watching. That information was sent to Vizio servers - all without consumer consent. Vizio "retrofitted" older TV versions by installing the software remotely.

Even worse, Vizio sold the illegally-obtained data to advertisers and other buyers, according to the complaint.

"The company provided consumers’ IP addresses to data aggregators, who then matched the address with an individual consumer or household," the FTC explained. "Vizio’s contracts with third parties prohibited the re-identification of consumers and households by name, but allowed a host of other personal details – for example, sex, age, income, marital status, household size, education, and home ownership. And Vizio permitted these companies to track and target its consumers across devices."

Vizio called the tracking feature "Smart Interactivity," an ambiguously-titled setting that claimed to "enable program offers and suggestions."

To settle the dispute, the company agreed to stop consumer tracking and to clearly explain its data collection methods with buyers. Vizio was also ordered to delete the data obtained from television owners.

How can you ensure your Vizio TV isn't collecting data without your permission? The company disabled the feature in models purchased before 2011, but you can still go to your device's settings and turn the "Smart Interactivity" feature off.

If your Vizio television has a VIA Plus interface, simply press the remote's Menu button, open Settings, choose System, then Reset and select Admin. Once under Admin, you can turn the "Smart Interactivity" feature off.